DANCE; Where Are All The Black Swans?

By GIA KOURLAS

Published: May 6, 2007

CORRECTION APPENDED

IN 1933 Lincoln Kirstein wrote a passionate 16-page letter to his friend A. Everett Austin Jr., the director of the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, introducing a man named George Balanchine and a dream: to remake ballet for America. The plan, as Kirstein wrote, was to have ''four white girls and four white boys, about 16 years old, and eight of the same, negros.''

What resulted from that letter -- the School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet, both founded by Kirstein and Balanchine -- have endured as major cultural institutions. But Kirstein's plan for student diversity was never realized, and while other minorities have made inroads in classical ballet, the complicated reality of racial inequality persists, especially for black women.

Because male dancers have always been in short supply, black men have attained some success, the most famous being Arthur Mitchell, who was a principal dancer at New York City Ballet before founding Dance Theater of Harlem in 1969 with Karel Shook. But there has never been a black female principal in the ranks of American Ballet Theater or City Ballet.

Currently Ballet Theater has one black female dancer, Misty Copeland, a member of the corps de ballet. Since the departure of Aesha Ash in 2003, City Ballet has had none. Last week Ms. Ash, a member of Alonzo King's San Francisco company Lines Ballet, returned to New York to perform at the Joyce Theater in an engagement that ends on Sunday.

The first -- and until recently, only -- black woman promoted to the rank of principal at a major American company was Lauren Anderson of Houston Ballet, then directed by Ben Stevenson. ''It seems like what matters is if you have a director or a choreographer who has the guts to do it,'' Ms. Anderson, who retired in 2006, said by phone from Houston, where she is now an outreach associate in the company's education department. ''But why should it take guts? It's art, it's ballet, it's dance and it's for everyone.''

It was devastating when Mr. Mitchell's Dance Theater of Harlem went on hiatus in 2004 because of financial problems, but at least it looked as if some of his female dancers would be given an opportunity to join major classical companies. That seemed particularly true of Alicia J. Graf, but she was hired by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in late 2005 after being turned down by City Ballet and Ballet Theater.

Tai Jimenez was the only Dance Theater member to make a successful transition to a prominent ballet company. After freelancing and being turned down by both major New York companies, she joined Boston Ballet, led by Mikko Nissinen, as a principal, though chronic injuries have forced her to step down.

''I got only about a year and a half out of her, but she went out in an amazing way, dancing the lead in Balanchine's 'Midsummer Night's Dream,' '' Mr. Nissinen said. ''As an artistic director you seldom bring somebody in who is 35, but my reasoning was that she represented what a mature ballerina is with a really ideal work ethic. I have an up-and-coming generation of very talented ladies, and I wanted them to have an example of what it means to be professional.''

Ms. Jimenez credits Mr. Nissinen with being a director who aspires to have a diverse company. But while many company leaders express that desire, few have acted on it, partly because there is a shallow pool from which to choose. In response to interview requests American Ballet Theater, led by Kevin McKenzie, said in a statement: ''Overall, more than 40 percent of A.B.T.'s roster has been trained outside the U.S. We think these numbers speak to the larger issue of access to quality ballet training in the U.S., regardless of racial background.''

Certainly it is impossible to speak of the makeup of companies without looking at the schools that feed them. A Ballet Theater spokeswoman, Kelly Ryan, said there were ''long-range plans in development for training students at all levels'' at the company's new Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, but she declined to elaborate. There are two black students at the school, one male and one female.

At the School of American Ballet, where this year the age of potential students has been lowered to 6 from 8 in an effort to attract a broader applicant pool, Annette Burgess, director of projects, said there had been an increase in minority students since the school started holding community auditions in 1998. The next round will take place on May 17 (in Chinatown), May 19 (in Brooklyn and Queens) and May 20 (in the Bronx and Harlem). Unlike auditions at the school, to be held during the next three weeks for children 6 to 10 who pay a $25 fee, community auditions are free.

Since the 1998-99 season minority enrollment in the children's division of the school has risen to 22 percent, from 13 percent. (The school's figures don't differentiate among minority groups.) But in the advanced division there is just one black female student. Marjorie Van Dercook, the school's executive director, said: ''That gets to the City Ballet issue. We're their academy, so what you see on the stage is reflected by what you see in the school.''

Correction: May 6, 2007, Sunday
Because of an editing error, a picture on the cover of Arts & Leisure today of the dancer Aesha Ash, with an article about the small number of black ballerinas in classical troupes, appears in mirror image.